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Official Publication of the Philippine Information Agency Bicol Regional Office, in cooperation with the RIAC-REDIRAS - RDC Bicol



Tuesday, November 22, 2016

PNP double barrel "Alpha" reaps 111 arrests, 16,216 personalities surrender in Bicol

By Julius B. Embile

LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 22 (PIA) – Nearly a month after its full implementation, the "Project Double Barrel Alpha" of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) in the Bicol region continued to yield results after its expansion from illegal drug pushers and users to high-value targets in the drug trade.

Last October 25, based on the command issued by PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa upon all the regional commanders of the PNP, the on-going campaign against illegal drugs has been expanded under Project Double Barrel Alpha.

Aside from the house visitation being done with Oplan Tokahang, the new Double Barrel Alpha has shifted more focus to high-value targets (HVT) and would include workplace visitations by the police.

As of November 20, PNP-Bicol recorded 16,261 drug-related surrenders and 111 neutralized high-value targets since the implementation of Project Double Barrel Alpha in the region. This was the result of 89 police operations conducted, including arrest warrant issuance, buy-bust operations and other police operations.

Under Oplan Tokhang, a sub-operation of Project Double Barrel, the house visits on suspected involved in the drug proliferation continues as well. Since the implementation of Project Double Barrel Alpha, a total of 277,221 house visits were conducted by the PNP-Bicol, resulting to the surrender of 15, 312 drug users and 949 drug pushers.

Majority of these house visits were done in Masbate province, with 89,570 houses visited which yielded 2,781 surrenders. Coming in second is Sorsogon, with 72,164 houses visited that resulted to 1,755 surrenders.

In Camarines Sur, a total of 55,401 houses were visited by the authorities under Double Barrel Alpha, prompting the surrender of 3,841 illegal drug personalities. In addition, the operations in Naga City also yielded 920 surrenders after 2,300 houses were visited by the police.

Furthermore, the province of Albay posted a total of 2,602 surrenders and 33,482 house visits through their Project Double Barrel Alpha operations. The PNP of Camarines Norte, as well, yielded 2,651 surrenders after conducting a total of 12,996 house visitations.

The province of Catanduanes reported the least number for the region, with 1,711 drug-related surrenders after 11,308 house visits conducted.

In the PNP’s operations to neutralize HVTs in the Bicol region, 105 personalities were arrested and six were killed in operational encounters after fighting the authorities. Multiple paraphernalia were also confiscated by the police in their operations, including various drugs, money amounting to Php 121,981.21, two vehicles and 13 firearms.

“So as not to confuse, Project Double Barrel Alpha is an expansion of the original Project Double Barrel,” said PSI Malu Calubaquib, spokesperson of PNP-Bicol.

Combining the results of the original Project Double Barrel and the expanded Project Double Barrel Alpha in the Bicol region, the total number of drug-related surrenders would be 62,468, with 848 total arrests through 663 police operations since July.

In an interview with PNP-Bicol chief Gen. Ramon Melvin Buenafe, the police attribute the success of the police operations to the participation and help of the community.

“It is obvious that the people are already tired of having our country, so we thank the Bicolanos and the organizations they established to help the police against illegal drugs,” stated Buenafe, during an anti-illegal drugs rally in Legazpi city last November 14.

“These operations (Double Barrel Alpha) that we are conducting are part of a whole-of-nation approach, because everybody gets to contribute and help. With this, we are confident that we can achieve our time-table. By the end of December, we expect to have curbed the drug problems here in Bicol,” explained the chief.

General Buenafe further stated that, with the combined efforts of the police and vigilant members of the community, the neutralization of the targeted 24,000 drug personalities can be attained before the deadline set by the Duterte administration.

“We are already at 16 thousand (drug personalities neutralized), and we still have time to catch the rest in our watch list,” said the PNP-chief. (MAL/JBE-PIA5)

- See more at: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/3301479709363/pnp-double-barrel-alpha-reaps-111-arrests-16-216-personalities-surrender-in-bicol#sthash.1jeCaOf0.dpuf

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